Friday 29 May - Return

On Thursday Nicola Sturgeon duly confirmed the promised slight easing of the lockdown and hillwalking could resume, with the proviso that you stayed local. No problem for us except to decide which hills to climb.

There were lots of cars parked at Castlehill Reservoir but we hadn't planned to stop there or the Woodland Trust carpark in Glen Devon which in any case was closed. Thwarted, people had parked their cars in small lay-bys and many others were half on verges and half on the road with the typical disregard for others which seems so common these days. They were mostly picnickers down by the river.

At the head of Glen Eagles though, we we were in glorious isolation back among the hills after ten long weeks of exile. Cuckoos welcomed us and have been constant companions on this and our three other days in the Ochils.

Fishing had resumed on Lower Glendevon Reservoir as per lockdown easing although we were surprised to find the boats out rather than anglers on the banks. It was good to see the country make tentative steps back to some sort of normality

From our chosen top we could see patches of snow lingering on Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers and other hills further north, all beyond our reach for the moment as was a good photograph given the heat haze.

It was a grand day out over the hills in a very welcome cool south easterly breeze watching the larks soaring, a sight we've missed so much this year. As a bonus Lynne spotted a nest among the tussocks with the young staring skywards, beaks gaped.

Anyone for Tossing the Caber?

All construction has been halted during lockdown except, of course, if it involves a bit more destruction of the Ochils. Four new bigger turbines to be installed.

West Craigs, which we traversed on our way back

It was simply bliss to be back among the hills but crowds of idiots descended on the Loch Lomond area and Glen Coe at the weekend, flouting the guidance on travel, so Nicola is threatening to change this guidance to law. Not sure how that will go down with those of us who've done our best to comply.  

Covid -19. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory builds VITAL in 37 days.

When I post about NASA it is usually related to my interest in their human space exploration programmes past and present or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's robotic exploration, most recently the upcoming launch of the Mars Rover, Perseverance (more of that in the next post). This however is different: "This is the story of how a team of engineers, fuelled by a desire to help during the crisis, brought VITAL into being" 

Some of the dozens of engineers involved in creating a ventilator prototype specially targeted to coronavirus disease patients at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), the prototype was created in 37 days in March and April 2020.

Left to right, standing: Shaunessy Grant, Michael Johnson, Dave Van Buren, Michelle Easter.

Left to right, kneeling: Brandon Metz, Patrick Degrosse.On April 30, the Food and Drug Administration approved VITAL for a ventilator Emergency Use Authorization. 

"Developed in just 37 days by NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory in response to the coronavirus pandemic, VITAL (short for Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) wouldn't replace current hospital ventilators, which can treat a broader range of medical issues. 

Designed specifically for COVID-19 patients, the prototype is composed of far fewer parts than traditional ventilators and is intended to last three to four months. Its license is being offered free to manufacturers through the Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. 

More than 100 manufacturers from around the world applied for a free license to build VITAL, and licensees will be announced later this month.

This is the story of how a team of engineers, fuelled by a desire to help during the crisis, brought VITAL into being. 

On March 11, Mechanical Systems Engineer David Van Buren found himself waiting in line for a cup of coffee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. It was a typical bustling Wednesday before mandatory teleworking kicked in, but Van Buren wasn't focused on his typical workload.

Instead, the mechanical systems engineer was crunching coronavirus numbers. In February, he'd given a lecture on pandemics in relation to COVID-19 for his physics course at Cal State Los Angeles, and he saw clear signs of a developing pandemic.

"It didn't take much extrapolating to see the potential of what could happen here," Van Buren said. "And at the same time, I was thinking about our work; we have these missions and efforts to explore other planets, but I started questioning if what we were doing at JPL was what we should be doing," Van Buren said.

That same morning, JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning's thoughts were preoccupied by the virus, and he needed coffee, too.

"I had just seen some projections, and I was worried," Manning said.

In a chance encounter, the two chatted about upcoming work and a bit about their coronavirus concerns.

"I went back to my desk after talking with Rob, and the question was still nagging me," Van Buren said. "We have incredible engineering talent and capabilities here. How can we help reduce the ventilator shortage that could be coming?"

This, well before most people even knew the meaning of "ventilator," let alone the fatal implications of a shortage.

Van Buren sent an email, outlining a plan to develop and proof a low-cost respirator design that could be made quickly and in volume. Manning was hooked.

"We needed to do something, and this was it," Manning said.

Thirty-seven days later, a team of more than 50 - some working on-site at JPL, but most from home - had designed, built and tested VITAL, a breathing aid that would help critically ill COVID-19 patients and bolster scarce stocks of traditional hospital ventilators.

The timeline is a feat nearly unheard of in medical device development, completed by a research and development center that makes robots for space, not breathing aids for humans. In JPL terms, the team would say they crammed an entire planetary flight mission - from formulation to launch to landing - in a little more than a month. Most team members worked 14-hour days, seven days a week, and mandatory telework restrictions established on March 17 put unique strains on an already daunting task. Van Buren said the obstacles discouraged no one.

"The difference is the purpose," Van Buren said. "Landing something on Mars is incredibly exciting, but saving lives is a different beast."

The Medical Link

So how did the team turn the initial idea into action? 

Enter Leon Alkalai, engineering fellow in the Office of Strategic Integration, who for the past six years has led a medical engineering forum at JPL aimed at identifying the Lab's unique space technologies that could be applied to solving challenging problems in healthcare and medicine.

"The broad vision has been there," Alkalai said. "David's idea brought the urgency and the opportunity for JPL to make a significant contribution in a unique way, and I wanted to help in any way I could."

The ventilator had to meet specific high-pressure oxygen flow rates to aid COVID-19 patients battling Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome; it had to be made of far fewer parts than a typical hospital ventilator to keep costs down; those parts had to be widely available in the U.S. supply chain so the ventilators could be built in mass quantities; and those parts couldn't be the same used by traditional ventilators so manufacturing VITAL wouldn't block production of other ventilators.

Van Buren canvassed JPL for experts, and the team - now about a dozen or so strong - held its kickoff meeting Monday, March 16 in Left Field, a whiteboard-lined space typically used for brainstorming early mission concepts. The team had turned the room into a ventilator learning station. And thanks to one world-renowned pulmonologist, the learning curve was about to get steep.

No Time to Breathe

As the Medical Director of the School of Respiratory Therapy for East Los Angeles and Santa Monica Colleges, Dr. Michael Gurevitch had access to a supply of ventilators, circuits, valves and filters he could bring to the Lab to give a crash course on what was needed to make a COVID-19-fighting device.

"Since coronavirus restrictions had shut down the colleges, the school leadership granted us access to grab just about anything we needed from their labs that would help aid JPL's project," Gurevitch said. 

After the meeting, VITAL's design team, led by Mechatronic Engineer Mike R. Johnson, turned Gurevitch's lecture into requirements as they developed a working concept, design and prototype.

"They were amazing. They not only grasped the medical concepts and physiology," Gurevitch said, "but they understood how those requirements would interface with the mechanics of the device."

Called to the Lab in a Pandemic

While a majority of the team worked from home, a limited staff stayed on Lab as mission-essential to work on prototype assembly and testing.

Mechatronic engineer Michelle Easter worked as prototype logistics and hardware test lead for VITAL. "We were considering the FDA approval process on top of making sure each part we choose is available for mass production, and not just available, but available right now," Easter said. "This had to be technically excellent, and the parts had to be readily available. We're not used to that at JPL. If I'm working on a flight instrument and I want a part, I'll just give a company a 20-month lead time to custom build it. That's not an option here."

Despite the early growing pains, the team found their groove, designing, building and testing two different prototype models - one powered by a blower and another by a pneumatic system. Both contain about one-seventh the parts of a traditional ventilator, and both can deliver the high-pressure oxygen flows needed for COVID-19 patients while keeping the lungs slightly inflated even as they exhale - key for patients to stave off infections like pneumonia.

"It's been amazing to be a part of such a grassroots project, and watching it just explode in an organic way from those first meetings into these working prototypes," Easter said. "I joke that I've met all my new favorite coworkers from this project. Because everyone on this team has a big heart, and they're on this project because they want to make a difference. That pureness of intention is incredible. Everybody is all in for the good, and it just feels great."

Jargon Jumble, Telework Tango

Systems Engineer Stacey Boland is no stranger to JPL's penchant for acronyms and jargon, but as operations lead on VITAL, she was tasked with essentially writing a user manual for the device as it was being built.

"The medical professionals definitely have their own language," Boland said. "Different specialties within the healthcare profession even seem to have their own dialects - so there's been a fair amount of iteration and editing involved."

Boland's other job is working on the MAIA instrument (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) - NASA's first time partnering with epidemiologists and health organizations to use satellite data to study human health. "In a given day, I'm talking to doctors, engineers, managers, visual strategists and sometimes also regulators," Boland said. 

It uniquely qualified her for a position on VITAL. And while there were a lot of different points of view to try to reconcile, a sense of purpose prevailed. "We all talk. We all listen. We're all learning together. There's something beautiful and enabling in having a singular focus - there's a real unmet need and we're responding to it. There truly is a sense that we're all in this together."

Ready to Help

With the prototypes built, Leon Alkalai connected the team with Dr. Matthew Levin at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. On April 22, barely a month after the project began, the ventilator passed critical tests in the center's high-fidelity human simulation lab, performing under a wide variety of simulated patient conditions.

On April 30, after reviewing the 505-page submission, the FDA approved VITAL for a ventilator Emergency Use Authorization. The selection process for which companies would be granted a free license was underway.

The team's accomplishments have captured the world's attention as well. On April 23, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine held a media briefing where JPL Associate Director of Strategic Integration Dave Gallagher discussed the development of VITAL. Two days later, Gallagher was in the White House, showing off the ventilator to President Donald Trump.

"Congratulate the engineer, OK? Say hello to Dave," Trump said to Gallagher, referring to Van Buren.

For Van Buren, the congratulations go all around for the team, and beyond.

"The medical workers, the people knitting face masks, providing PPE for groups on the front lines ... the amount of compassion people are displaying while we are all trying to cope with this epidemic is really heartwarming."

What VITAL will mean to the world is yet unknown. Currently, ventilator usage remains below critical levels in the United States, but that doesn't mean VITAL won't be needed if coronavirus cases spike again in the future.

"It looks like we're near the peak in the U.S., but it could get worse as easily as it gets better," Van Buren said. "We won't know it's over until it's obvious we have beat it. No matter what happens, what we've shown through this project is a pathway to get important, time-sensitive work done. There will be another pandemic, and we're putting in place principles on how to attack them here."

It has the potential to save lives, but all who helped build it hope coronavirus numbers never swell to a place where hospital ventilator capacities are exhausted."

Courtesy NASA JPL-Caltech

Sent from my iPhone

Some hope at last

Mountaineering Scotland is leading discussions with partners in the Mountain Safety Group on how to deliver a phased return to the hills and mountains.

It has drafted proposals which will be submitted to the Scottish government outlining how activities like hill walking, climbing and bouldering can be re-introduced.

Stuart Younie CEO of Mountaineering Scotland said: "We want to see an immediate return to hill walking, climbing and other outdoor activities as lockdown starts to ease, and have been encouraged by the way the outdoor sector in Scotland is working together to make this happen in a safe and responsible way"

Damon Powell, chairman of Scotttish Mountain Rescue said, "We hope to see everyone out there soon, but preferably not on a rescue!" (Source: BBC)

This last paragraph seems to me to be rather more measured view than that of one MRT south of the border.

Friday 24 April - Life goes on

Our seeds have now arrived from D T Brown, a delightful company to deal with, and planting has begun. Peas, cress, radish, spring onions, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce. and rocket, named :Rocket Artemis F1. When I pointed out to Lynne that the Artemis programme is NASA's current Moon mission and F1 engines powered the first stage of the Saturn V in the Apollo era, I was met with 'You're obsessed man!'  Oh well.

We also have Nasturtiums and Love in a Mist.

But we're not the only ones planting:

On our walk yesterday we came across this painted stone placed by the fence. Nice touch from someone. Thanks.

I'm beginning to think that a Twitter account might be better suited during the current restrictions than a blog. It's probably a better place to say nothing very much.

My birthday tomorrow, normally spent on a hill, but our usual walk will have to do.

Monday 20 April - I think this rather fine

It's taken a while, but this beautiful larch tree on the route of our daily walk, has come to life.

Taken with iPhone. Click to enlarge.

Sunday 19 April - four weeks on

These daffodils brighten up our daily walk but obviously they've had a close encounter with a tractor, probably delivering hay for the sheep. I like to think they were spared on purpose. Positive thoughts are needed at present.

We met not a soul before turning onto the now familiar single track road to Powmill. In the distance is King's Seat Hill, the snow patches on its steep north east slopes slowly shrinking.

At one of the few houses along our route the friendly dog barks his regular welcome; the cat observes us briefly then turns away, disinterested. It's a cat after all. I like cats. I like dogs for the opposite reason.

A lovely spot with dog, cats and hens.

At home I'm falling into an enjoyable routine, if jumping from one thing to another counts as routine.  
 
I've been uploading photos to Flickr, browsing climbing books and generally living vicariously on the tops and ridges of the Munros and others. I searched the bookshelves for Irvine Butterfield's High Mountains of Britain and Ireland, a book I bought over thirty years ago but never used preferring the SMC's Tables to identify the Munros and Tops using Grid References, then working out routes for ourselves.(Edit: We bought Butterfield’s book in 1988, three years before ‘compleation’ so I assume we thought it simply a book worth having for its own sake. Which it is.)

However, Butterfield's book is an excellent one and his photographs capture the landscape well. I remember a friend pouring over its pages at Ardmair the evening before we set off for Achintee, bound for a day on Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor. I teased him about using a guide book, and a non-SMC one at that, but he would have none of it!

There are other books to read of course;

Everest - The First Ascent, the untold story of Griffith Pugh, recommended by Sir Hugh and Gimmer.

James Naughtie's On The Road - American Adventures from Nixon to Trump.

The Haldanes of Gleneagles, a Scottish History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day, which Lynne has read but which I might find a bit dry.

Unfortunately, all this is a poor substitute for being on the hills. But never mind. Following the Sunday Times report into the UK Government's handling of the virus outbreak in its early stages, Cameron McNeish has the answer to Scotland's coronavirus problem: "I think it's very clear now that being shackled to England is seriously bad for our health@DissolvetheUnion". Really? Cringeworthy to say the least.
 
To cheer you up (well it cheers me up) I leave you with these:

Cuillin Main Ridge Traverse - approaching the Thearlaich-Dubh Gap (hidden) with Sgurr Thearlaich (right) and Sgurr Alasdair (left). Top of Great Stone Shoot between them.

Cuillin Ridge from near Gars-bheinn

Scanned 35mm slide. Am Basteir, April 1991 two months before we finished our round

Saturday 11 April - Living in the moment

Apart from our daily exercise I've been uploading photographs to Flickr initially because my cousin - we rock climbed together in our youth - asked to see photos of our locality and the hills of the north. I do like Flickr but the free version has a limit of 1000 photos, so sometime soon I'll have to upgrade to Pro and take out a subscription. Looking again at some of the photographs I've uploaded, Corbett trips to Rum, Knoydart and Letterewe, for example, have made us long to be back among those magnificent hills. It's not about the Corbetts, it's about just being there.

In all probability though, it will be next year before we can return so what, we asked ourselves, would be something special to plan and dream about during what will seem, we fear, a very long summer?   Living in the moment is all very well, but a bit of living in the future wouldn't go amiss we told ourselves.

So now we have an idea. A long term project. Plans can be laid. OS Maps can once more can spread on the floor.

In the Cuillin in the days of breeches and ordinary shirts. (from a slide)

The Flickr link for anyone interested is here


If you do have a look, bear in mind that I'm using Flickr for storage so there will be some you'll want to skip through. There are adverts every so often on the free version.

Meantime we await compost and seeds to grow lettuce, peas and cress in our growboxes.

Friday 3 April - So what's been going on?

Well, nothing as far as hills are concerned what with the lockdown and trying to keep ourselves and others safe. We abandoned the idea of walking in the quiet Ochils which would have involved a three mile drive to the nearest parking spot so have enjoyed daily walks from the house instead, meeting only the odd cyclist or dog walker. Kinross-shire is very rural so options for walking are varied but so far we've stuck to the same circuit, a route past farms and open fields with newly born lambs beginning to find their feet.

 Click to enlarge all photos.

The road to Powmill, reached from the house by a pleasant track with sheep and cattle grazing either side. Views to the Ochils all the way

Social Distancing

It seems a long, long time ago since we were out to Skythorn Hill and before that, a favourite walk through Corb Glen and onto the gentle hills nearby - next three photos.

View from the Cadger's Path (and below)

Green Law

Setting out for Skythorn Hill and other tops

and a day on Wether Hill.

So what else is going on?

Yesterday my usual news update from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) included the latest on the Mars 2020 Rover, now named Perseverance following a US wide student competition when 28000 essays were submitted by students explaining their chosen name for the rover. Eventually this number was reduced to 155 then to nine, the eventual winner being from Virginia.

Perseverance at Kennedy Space Centre. The red arrow at the rear shows the plate which carries 10,932,295 names submitted from around the world. Mine included! It also carries the essays of the 155 finalists in the 'Name the Rover' competition. (Photo courtesy NASA, JPL)

The plate - the laser-etched graphic depicts the Earth and Mars joined by the Sun. (Photo courtesy NASA, JPL)

The three chips with the names stencilled by electron beam can be seen top left on the plate which will be visible to cameras on Perseverance's mast. Launch of the Atlas V carrying Perseverance is scheduled for July this year, landing on Mars at Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. As I said in a previous post, I have my NASA Boarding Pass so am raring to go! By the time it launches I might be wishing I was on the pad in person rather than in name only.

Also on the space exploration front (well, sort of) I have a second, half-built, Saturn V model to complete and a new Apollo 11 Lunar Module to build which will compliment the Apollo Command and Service Module completed in February.

Like everyone else, our summer trips to the hills are off and we have only the faintest of hopes that our usual September holiday at Braemar will take place.

Stay safe and keep well.

Please note: because of one idiot spammer I am now moderating all comments.

Tuesday 25 February - Earth: The Pale Blue Dot

On 14 February 1990 Voyager 1, then 4 billion miles from the Sun, looked back for the last time and took a series of photographs of the Sun and six planets from 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane.  NASA has reprocessed the photograph below. Click to enlarge.

Courtesy Voyager Project, NASA and JP-Caltech who hold the copyright

As a backdrop to my 64cm high model Saturn V rocket which I built a couple of years ago, I have another famous photograph: Earthrise, taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders from lunar orbit on 24 December 1968.

Monday 3 February - Easter Downhill, 361m OS map 58



Easter Downhill from Castlehill Reservoir (February 2019). Castle Hill is an alternative name for the hill. 

A warm balmy Spring day wandering among the hills north of Glendevon village eventually landed us on the 361m summit of Easter Downhill.

That was in 1991 and with us was the latest member of the family: Mist, our Border Collie, rescued six months earlier in a poor state from a farm not far from where we stood. Now healthy and strong, two months later she would climb her first Munros with us on a backpacking trip in Knoydart. That left us one Munro to do, Sgurr Dubh Mòr on Skye which involves scrambling, so we were on our own unfortunately.

Though dry, it was far from balmy when we pulled into the small parking area below Lendrick Hill and, with perfect timing, the forecast rain blew in just as we were putting on our waterproofs. Cameras were stuffed into rucksacks, waterproof (?) covers atta, taken off again to get gloves, car keys dropped in the mud. But no matter, it was good to be out in some rough weather and heading for a top again.

A short walk along the road took us to the farm road to Downhill and the open exposed hillside. The wind battered away at us, sleet showers swept in and just as quickly pushed through, my waterproof rucksack cover blew off, was retrieved, re-attached, blew off again so returned to its zipped pouch. We enjoyed it all.

Lendrick Hill from the top of Eater Downhill.

Castlehill Reservoir  and Seamab Hill 

Distant middle - Whitewisp Hill,  and right Innerdownnie Hill

On the summit, we remembered the day back in 1991, took some photos and Lynne briefly reacquainted herself with the remains of the hillfort, but it was no place to hang about so we departed downwards towards a stand of Scots Pines where lunch could be had in relative calm.

Mellock Hill from our tea break spot. First of the local hills to be threatened by wind farms in early 2002 (I think),  a campaign stopped the development but even more inappropriate locations in the Ochils were chosen instead.

We found a sunny spot with a good view to Mellock Hill and enjoyed a brief halt to enjoy a cup of Lapsang Souchong and a biscuit. Our plan to walk directly back to the farm track was soon abandoned as we sank into the sodden ground. Some may remember that my left Achilles tendon is troubled by wearing boots so I was wearing trail shoes which of course failed to keep my feet dry in such conditions. Lynne's boots performed no better so we ascended some way back up Easter Downhill to escape the worst of the quagmire, dropped to a gate and so to the track.

Heading uphill a bit to escape the bog

The weather was now blustery and invigorating so we decided to continue towards Downhill Farm and have a look at the Castlehill Reservoir dam where we reckoned the overflow would be quite spectacular. The start of the path to the dam is waymarked but obviously not used very much, probably because there is limited parking on the B934 and most people (tourists rather than walkers) use the route near Nether Auchlinsky on the A823.

Approaching Castlehill reservoir with weather closing in again

Plunging to the River Devon to join the River Forth

The photo doesn't capture the overflow's display of power, though a video taken with the iPhone does better.
 
On our return journey we noticed some rusting farm machinery - cultivators - in a field. They had been manufactured by Nicholson of Newark around 1906-1920, perhaps earlier, and unlike old rusting cars found in similar locations their presence didn't jar.

A route by the pines (not the ones where we had tea) looks like an ideal walk on a summer's evening

A nasty chest infection kept me housebound for a large part of January so it was a great relief to
be on a hill again. I did manage to finish my latest model, the Apollo 11 Command and Service Module so the month was not completely wasted.

Our 1991 route as I remember it, minus the Green Knowes Windfarm

Today's route

Sent from my iPhone